Thursday, July 30, 2015

The Hardest Button to Button



In July 2010, I told two Yankee baseball memories to a  TV camera, for the heroes episode in the five part PBS series, "Baseball: A New York Love Story." I brought a ton of material with me after ransacking my place looking for stuff I swore I intelligently put away the last time I needed them: photos, letters, clippings, ticket stubs, programs, etc. When The New York Times published my New York Giant and Yankee stories and asked me for the same things. My apartment looked like I was robbed by mean, thing-breaking thieves. Dyslexic Anti-Dewey Decimal freak I am, I did it again. 

Why do I do this to myself? My nerves were shot. I wasted three days re-organizing my stuff.

At the TV studio one of the producers needed to fix the collar on my shirt and on my sports jacket which had flipped up after my shirt problem was resolved. I had to re-button my shirt twice. I sat on the microphone booster and had to retell a tale when I did. In one story, Sparky Lyle, a pitcher, after striking out the side, leaves the mound banging his glove against his chest. Without thinking it through, I reenacted this scene and beat my fist against my chest, one inch away from the microphone on my lapel. The fellow doing the sound with the headphones on looked like the only guy on the stage who didn't know the cannon goes off at the end of the 1812 Overture. After he recovered, I apologized twice.

If you enjoy my stories please  check out my memoir, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood." Available at Logos Book Store or online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

The book has 109 Amazon five star reviews out of 109 total reviews posted. We're pitching a perfect game. My old world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs.  

You can also purchase my photography portfolio, "River to River - New York Scenes From a Bicycle" on Amazon.

Tonight, Thursday, July 30th, I'm telling a story at Walter Michael DeForest's show at Ryan's Daughter, 350 East 85th St. @ 6pm. Come on down!

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